Shell is keen to present itself as a responsible company that is trying to tackle climate change but critics say its commitment to tar sands, deep water wells and Arctic exploration are at odds with this stance.

The emails, which have all names redacted, follow the decision by the oil company to become a principal sponsor of the Atmosphere, Exploring Climate Science gallery and the extended Climate Changing programme at the Science Museum.

The Atmosphere gallery was designed to deepen public understanding of global warming but Shell’s own climate change adviser – former oil trader David Hone – made recommendations on what should be included.

Emails show the close relationship between the Science Museum and Shell with the two discussing how they should react to expected criticism from Greenpeace following a Guardian story in October 2014. In that story, the Science Museum’s former director Chris Rapley criticised Greenpeace’s successful campaign to make Lego drop its partnership with Shell.

In another communication with the Science Museum dated 9 December 2014, a Shell staff member gives what they call a “heads up” on a Reuters story reporting that Shell’s Arctic drilling contractor, Noble, has pleaded guilty to eight charges of pollution and poor record keeping.

But the most damaging email is dated 8 May 2014 when a Shell employee receives an update from the Science Museum and replies. “Regards the rubbish archive project [an interactive exhibition examining waste in the context of climate change], xxx and I have some concerns on this exhibition particularly as it creates an opportunity for NGOs to talk about some of the issues that concern them around Shell’s operations.”

It goes on: “Could you please share more information with us on the symposium event planned for September? As you know we receive a great deal of interest around our art sponsorships so need to ensure we do not proactively open up a debate on the topic. Will it be an invite only event?”

And it ends: “Regarding the gallery update, can I check whether you have touched base with David Hone to see if he would like to participate in the content refresh?”

…

Garrard said he was concerned that the close relationship between big oil and the Science Museum was set to continue with BP sponsoring a forthcoming exhibition, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age.

CLIMATE-CHANGE activists swooped on David Cameron’s constituency office yesterday to stage a “love-in” protest against his tendency to get “in bed with the big six” energy companies: here.

Multinational oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that it would eliminate 6,500 positions this year and slash investment by $7 billion. These moves were accompanied by an announcement that Shell is planning to proceed with a takeover of BG Group, a move which will likely result in further layoffs: here.

STRIKING American oil workers confronted “aloof” industry fat cats at an exclusive London dinner on Thursday — where the man who could resolve their dispute was the star speaker.

Staff at nine refineries from California to Kentucky, operated by different firms, walked out on February 1 after industry negotiators refused to incorporate key safety clauses into their next three-year agreement with unions.

The United Steelworkers union (USW)-led strikers were joined by workers from Indiana and Ohio refineries on February 9.

In an exclusive interview with the Morning Star, USW activists visiting London this week said up to 30,000 workers at 63 plants could be affected if the union is forced to escalate strike action.

Reps met with officers from general union Unite before protesting outside the International Petroleum week dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane — where industry bigwigs were paying a minimum of £300 a head for a four-course feast.

And in a keynote address, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, whose firm is leading negotiations on behalf of refinery bosses, called on the industry to be “less aloof, more assertive.”

“So, to make our voice heard, our sector needs to enter into the public debate alongside other credible parties — ranging from academics to non-governmental organisations and policymakers,” he told diners.

The strike by more than 5,000 oil workers in the US has entered its second week. Behind-the-scenes negotiations between the United Steelworkers and the lead industry bargainer, Royal Dutch Shell, have been put off by the company until February 18, following an offer by the USW on Wednesday: here.

The current strike of US oil refinery workers raises many of the same issues that arose in the 1980 national strike. Once again, workers face attacks on wages, safety, pensions and health benefits: here.

1 May 2007 — Eva Rowe, daughter of two workers killed in the BP–Texas City disaster, testified about the disaster and worker safety before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee on March 22, 2007.

Walkouts at the BP plant in Whiting, Indiana, and its joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, just after midnight brought the number of plants with striking hourly workers to 11.

They collectively account for 13 per cent of US refining capacity.

USW said that refinery owners led by Royal Dutch Shell had failed to discuss health and safety issues and engaged in “bad-faith bargaining, including the refusal to bargain over mandatory subjects, undue delays in providing information, impeded bargaining and threats issued to workers if they joined the strike.”

USW international president Leo Gerard said: “Management cannot continue to resist allowing workers a stronger voice on issues that could very well make the difference between life and death for too many of them.”

Yesterday marked the eighth day of the strike, which USW called on January 31 after accusing Shell of walking away from the negotiating table.

About 4,000 workers at refineries in California, ­Kentucky, Texas and Washington initially left their jobs when the strike began shortly after midnight on February 1.

Another 1,440 workers joined the picket lines when employees of the BP-operated refineries in Indiana and Ohio walked out yesterday morning.

Oil companies are continuing to operate all but one of the plants with scab labour.

Tesoro Corp elected to shut down production at its Martinez, California, refinery because half the plant’s production had already stopped due to a planned overhaul.

USW began talks with Shell on January 21, initially ­seeking wage rises, tighter policy to prevent worker fatigue and reductions in non-union contractors working in refineries.

Since the start of the strike, the union has stressed the safety and health aspects of its proposals to prevent accidents in refineries.

The week-long strike by US oil refinery workers has revealed widespread social anger over the continued erosion of living standards and working conditions over nearly six years of a supposed economic recovery. On Sunday morning, 1,400 workers at refineries in Indiana and Ohio joined the walkout of 3,800 workers on strike since February 1 in California, Texas, Kentucky, and Washington state: here.

Workers at nine US oil refineries and chemical plants across four states, producing some 10 percent of the country’s fuel, went on strike after their union announced that negotiations on their salaries and safety concerns failed.

The mass walkout of refinery workers – the first since 1980 – took place on Sunday, after the United Steelworkers union (USW) rejected the fifth offer by the industry’s main negotiator, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which in turn halted talks.

On Sunday morning, union officials called a limited strike—involving nine out of the 65 oil refineries it organizes and only 3,800 out of the 30,000 workers covered by the national agreement. The action was called after Royal Dutch Shell, the lead bargainer for the oil companies, walked out of talks without giving the USW anything it could present as a concession to help overcome rank-and-file opposition to another sellout deal.

Like workers throughout the United States, oil workers are determined to regain lost pay after more than a decade of stagnant wages and rising health care and other living expenses. In addition, many oil workers are subjected to 12-hour shifts and are forced to work as many as 14 straight days, according to the USW, resulting in fatigue and the danger of fatal accidents.

Two of the refineries selected for picketing were the locations of deadly disasters over the last decade. This includes the Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas (formerly owned by BP), where 15 workers were killed and 170 injured in a March 23, 2005 hydrocarbon vapor cloud explosion. Investigations found BP responsible for unsafe conditions due to corporate cost cutting, a failure to invest in the plant infrastructure and a lack of oversight on safety and major accident prevention. BP sold the facility to Marathon for $2.5 billion as part of a divestment plan following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.

A safety video about the fatal April 2, 2010, explosion and fire at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington. The accident occurred during startup of the refinery’s “naphtha hydrotreater unit” after a maintenance shut down. A nearly 40-year-old heat exchanger violently ruptured, causing an explosion and fire that fatally injured seven workers – the largest loss of life at a U.S. refinery since 2005.

The Jerry White article continues:

The other facility is the Tesoro Anacortes Refinery in the state of Washington where seven workers were killed in an explosion on April 2, 2010. State regulators cited the company for 39 “willful” and five “serious” violations of health and safety regulations. An investigation by the US Chemical Safety Board concluded that Tesoro had a “complacent” attitude towards flammable leaks and occasional fires; did not correct a history of recurring leaks and placed workers in dangerous conditions; and did not adequately maintain equipment before the lethal blast. It also found that the accident was rooted in “a deficient refinery safety culture, weak industry standards for safeguarding equipment, and a regulatory system that too often emphasizes activities rather than outcomes.”

Last August, the Obama administration’s Justice Department shut down its four-year investigation into violations of occupational safety and environmental laws, claiming that the evidence it found “does not reach the exacting bar for criminal prosecution.”

After appeals by Tesoro’s attorneys, a judge in the state of Washington threw out 27 of the 39 “willful” violations and reduced the company’s fine from $2.39 million to $685,000. Judge Mark Jaffe could knock that down even further in a ruling expected this year.

In comments to the local media web site, click2houston.com, Josey Wales, a supporter of the oil workers, replied to comments criticizing the strikers. “[This] is about what the company wants to take away. It’s about the safety in the plants. Maybe you have not been paying attention to the explosions, fires, environmental incidents and the exposure these guys are constantly facing… These corporations don’t care if you’re exposed to cancer-causing chemicals on a constant basis on your job. But do you care if your family is? Are you ignorant enough to believe these chemicals stop at the gate around these plants? That they don’t show up in your water your family is drinking?

“My dad and grandfather both worked in the plants. They worked shift work, nights, evenings, days. They worked holidays and weekends. By the time they were 60 years old they were worn out old men. They buried friends that burned to death in fires and explosions. They buried friends that died from cancer… These plants are making record profits and the CEOs are taking home 40 million-plus a year plus stock bonuses. If you think cheap oil is going to hurt them you are ignorant to how it works. Oil companies buy oil to refine and then sell the byproducts from it. It’s the drilling companies that are laying off. The oil companies are going to make a killing with cheap oil.”

The strike by 3,800 oil industry workers has entered its fourth day after talks between the United Steelworkers and industry negotiators failed to make any progress Monday or Tuesday on a new three-year agreement covering 30,000 workers: here.

The United Steelworkers (USW) on Thursday rejected the latest proposal from Royal Dutch Shell for a new three-year labor contract covering 30,000 US workers in the oil industry. The rejection comes as the refinery workers’ strike enters its sixth day, with the union continuing to limit the walkout to 3,800 workers at nine out of country’s 65 refineries organized by the USW: here.

Britain: Unions vowed yesterday to hit back at a “fundamentally unsafe” assault on oil workers’ shift patterns as BP announced it would cut investment by up to a fifth next year. Wood Group chief executive Dave Stewart used Monday’s emergency oil summit in Aberdeen to reiterate bosses’ calls for workers to accept a change from current working patterns. Workers who are currently given three weeks off for every two weeks worked on-platform have been told patterns will change to three weeks on, three weeks off. This means employees, including those working night-shifts, would potentially have to work 21 consecutive days on the dicey rigs: here.

SOUTH African trade union Solidarity warned on Friday that it had received no indication that BP subsidiaries would seek to annul wage agreements. The oil giant announced last week that it would freeze wages for 83,000 employees world-wide this year because of a 50 per cent slump in oil prices. But Solidarity senior organiser Gerhard Cloete said the union had not received any formal notice of companies seeking exemption from the current wage agreement: here.

Earlier this month Shell finally announced an out-of-court settlement paying £55 million to 15,000 Nigerian fishermen and their community in compensation for a massive oil spill which destroyed their fishing industry for a generation.

Shell admitted liability for the oil spill in 2011, but has been arguing about the size of the spill and the compensation for years. Martin Day of the fishermen’s lawyers Leigh Day welcomed the settlement but said it was “deeply disappointing” that Shell took so long to agree the payment.

In September 2013, Shell met the fishermen directly but, their lawyers said, the fishermen rejected an offer that was “derisory and insulting.”

Amnesty International, which also took the fishermen’s side, said Shell had relied on data showing only a small oil spill around the town of Bodo, rather than the massive spill that it actually finally admitted to in court.

Amnesty International “firmly believes Shell knew the Bodo data were wrong. If it did not it was scandalously negligent.”

Who could be running a company that took so long to be held responsible?

Tony Blair’s former foreign policy adviser Nigel Sheinwald joined Royal Dutch Shell’s board in July 2012, and sits on its corporate social responsibility committee.

The former Blair aide has been in charge of Shell’s “responsibility” for much of the time that the Nigerian fishermen have been saying the firm was irresponsible.

The latest corporate social responsibility report is full of claims that Shell acted responsibly over oil spills in the Niger Delta, but there was no mention of the Bodo claim.

The final Bodo settlement suggests the fishermen were right. Sheinwald was one of Blair’s chief advisers during the Iraq war, so this is the second time he has been involved in an oil-linked disaster.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy British gas producer BG Group for 47 billion pounds ($69.7 billion) in a cash and stock takeover, the companies announced Wednesday. The move gives oil giant Shell a greater stake in the world’s natural gas markets in the wake of tumbling oil prices: here.

In 2011, Shell paid together with the Italian group ENI more than a billion dollars for the license of the 245 oil field off the coast of Nigeria. That field contains about a quarter of Nigerian oil reserves. In addition, Shell must have known that the money was channeled to the controversial company Malabu were former oil minister Dan Etete was the main shareholder. Etete was convicted in France for money laundering.

This is the video Shell and Formula 1 had removed from YouTube several times. Corporate censorship on a video with content that’s utterly not infringing, just bad publicity. They tried removing this entry three times as well, but I kept denying their claim and re-uploading it – telling them to point out exactly what is infringing about the content.

So Shell, you’re censoring YouTube aye? That’s a way to destroy your brand even more spectacularly than just having no moral, ethical and future-minded basis on your decision to destroy even more of the earth. Use your size for change and to push clean energy forward, not for repeating something that’s so obviously, devastatingly, evidently wrong.